Business rates appeals system is creaking under pressure and lack of resource at the VOA

According to business rates experts at Colliers, latest business rates appeal figures announced today reveal that the business rates system and in particular, CCA, the Check Challenge Appeal Business Rates Appeals System isn’t up to scratch with many businesses still struggling to get their business rates appeals through the system.

According to government statistics, in the first sixth months of the new 2023 list (1^st April to 30^th September 2023), 30,950 Checks (the first part of the appeal process) were registered of which almost 40 %,12,160 still remain outstanding. Only 2,530 have progressed to the Challenge stage and of these Challenges, only 180 have been resolved (a low 7 %).

In addition 8.3 % of all Challenges have been labelled as “incomplete” by the VOA and therefore void. Given the difficulty for businesses in registering a Check in CCA in the first place, with the amount of detail businesses need to provide so that most businesses now have to use professional rating surveyors, Colliers says this level of rejection, often on a technicality, is unacceptable and shows how arduous this system is for ratepayers.

Colliers also questions the system whereby the VOA has 4 months to decide whether a Challenge is valid, but on receiving the news that the Challenge is “incomplete” the rate payer or their adviser can, in many cases, only be given 24 hours to dispute this.

Looking at the CCA stats for the 2017 list, also reported today, the picture becomes even more concerning. The latest figures reveal 37,470 Challenges against the 2017 list are still outstanding. This means almost seven years after the start of the 2017 rating list,  21% of the appeals submitted have not been resolved. “The VOA’s lack of  progress in resolving these high appeal numbers should certainly raise eyebrows. “ says John Webber, Head of Business Rates at Colliers.

John Webber continued“ The figures today reveal that the VOA is seriously under pressure. Given the Government’s promise of three yearly revaluations, the next list will be in 2026 with a Valuation date of April 1^st, 2024. The VOA will therefore need to get working on this next year. We believe the VOA is under resourced to deal with the new list and the backlog we are still seeing from the 2017 list as well as the current 2023 list.

“Against this background it is perhaps not surprising that there has been pressure to reduce the Challenges from the 2023 list- with so many now labelled “incomplete” and thus void, despite the fact that most of these have been submitted with professional help.

“None of this bodes well for businesses trying to appeal their business rates.”

He added, “The VOA keeps trying to frustrate ratepayers in appealing their rating assessments, but even with the hurdles in place businesses are continuing to challenge their assessments.

“The suggestion that CCA is working has been blown out of the water with these statistics. The burden of business rates is too high and the lack of transparency about how their bills are arrived at is the root cause of this shocking number of people trying to appeal their rate bills.”